Cape May County, NJ ~ Red Knots and Ruddy Turnstones

 

Cape May County, NJ ~ Shorebirds

A trip around Cape May County the past few days has seen and increase in the numbers of shorebirds.

Yellow Legs at Stone Harbor Point

Least Terns mating ritual Cape May Point State Park

Red Knots and other peeps near Kimbel's Beach

Ruddy Turnstones near Kimbel's Beach

Dunlin at the Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor

 Dunlin and other peeps at the Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor

 

Reed's Beach - Red Knots and more

Every spring the Red Knot, an endangered shorebird flies from it's wintering home in Chile back to the Arctic to breed.  The birds stop once in the long flight along the shores of the Delaware Bay where it refuels by eating Horseshoe Crab eggs. One of the miracles of nature is that the Horseshoe Crabs know when to leave their homes on the floor of the Atlantic ocean along the East Coast and travel back to the bay to spawn.  This spawning takes place during the new and full moons in May and June with the largest concentration around the full moon in May.  We are building to the full moon now and there are hundred's, probably thousands of the crabs here spawning and many more than I have seen in recent years.  This year the numbers of Red Knots looks higher also.  Stopping at Reed's Beach today I was talking to one of the scientist's who are studying the Red Knots and he said that there were between 6000 and 8000 Red Knots on the beach today where they were trapping and tagging the birds. The birds were flying across from an island nearby in large groups and I could see at least 1000 Red Knots, plus Ruddy Turnstones along with gulls on the beach.  If I could have a wish about spring migration it would be that the Laughing Gull and other gulls didn't also enjoy feasting on the Horseshoe Crab eggs.

Top birds Red Knots(4) and bottom birds Ruddy Turnstones

Birding with Mike and Lois

In December I was contacted through birding pals by a couple coming to the Cape May area in May. Michael and Lois have left their home in the Portland, Oregon area and have been birding around the US with many stops along the Gulf coast before heading of the Eastern Seaboard.  They arrived Tuesday on the Cape May-Lewes ferry.  Yesterday they went on several of the birding walks with the Cape May Bird Observatory.  This morning I met up with Mike and Lois and we went on the Belleplain State Forest walk with the CMBO. The weather wasn't the best so the birds weren't as active as I would have liked.  The highlight were point blank looks at Prairie Warblers chasing each other around.





After the walk at Belleplain finished I took them down to Reed's Beach hoping to see some Horseshoe Crab and their eggs with some shorebirds feeding on the eggs.  As we drove down the road the first birds we saw were Surf Scoters and Black Scoters close to the shoreline. At the road's end there were the dozens of Double-crested Cormorants hanging out on the pilings.  Across the inlet water is an island where a large group of just arrived Red Knots were resting.  A walk out onto the jetty afforded us a great look at breeding plumage Ruddy Turnstones, Red Knots, Least Sandpipers, Sanderlings and Laughing Gulls

Cape May Point Treasures ~ Birds and Beach

Finally, a good weather forecast.   Over to St Pete's beach for some walking and birding. There were Bonaparte Gulls, Herring Gulls, Black Scoters, Red-throated Grebes, a single Brant and Ruddy Turnstones. Next stop Lake Lilly which was devoid of ducks except for a few Mallards and American Coots. Then I was off to look for the Painted Bunting and Black-capped Chickadee without success.  While there I heard that the Ross's Goose previously seen at Lake Lilly was behind a house on Seagrove Ave.  Since this was a life bird for me off I went and there it was feeding out on the fields.  After about 20 minutes the goose flew off after circling around the end of the field.  Next I decided to take a walk around the South Cape Meadows.  Not anything going on there but did meet another (female) birder who recently starting birding. Wait until she sees how addictive it can be.  Soon she'll be figuring out how to get more time off from work so she can get out in the field.

Birding Cook's Beach

Red Knots on Spit

Mid May to me means the return of the Red Knots and other shorebirds that come to feed on the Horseshoe Crabs.  The birds fly from South American without stopping and when the Red Knots arrive they need to feed and eat as much protein as possible as the leave the Delaware Bay and fly through to the Arctic Circle where they breed.  The numbers of the Red Knots have been down which the scientists feel is from over-harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs.  The birds get the protein they need from the Horseshoe Crab eggs.  There's been a moratorium in the harvesting of the crabs and now the scientists feel the numbers of birds are rebounding.  Some of the beaches that are good for the birds to feed along are Reed's Beach, Cook's Beach and Kimmel's Beach.  Today I saw Red Knots, Least Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, Laughing Gulls, Forester's Terns, Great Egret, Snowy Egrets.  Here are some of the pictures.

Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Laughing Gulls

Least Sandpipers

Forester's Terns

Great Egret

Snowy Egrets

Cook's Beach on a great day of birding

After checking out Benny's Landing Road where I finally saw my first Clapper Rail of the season I cut across the island to Cook's Beach hoping to see some Red Knots feasting on the horseshoe crab eggs. Cook's Beach was having great flybys of mixed shorebirds though I saw no Red Knots in the mix. It looked like there were good numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers, Sanderlings and a few Dunlin and Ruddy Turnstones.   Going back out the road I saw Willets, Snowy Egrets and a great Glossy Ibis feeding among the reeds in a pan.

The return of the Red Knots

May here along the Delaware Bay means the return of the spawning Horseshoe crabs which brings the shorebirds that feed on their eggs.  The birds that feed on their eggs are the Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings and Semipalmated Sandpipers.  It's an exciting time to see them all returning to Reed's Beach, Moore's Beach, Cook's Beach and the beaches along the Delaware Bay from the Villas and up past Fortescue.  Of course, the Laughing Gulls are always present and taking a good numbers of the eggs leaving less for the smaller birds that count on the protein from the horseshoe crab eggs to beef up for the trip to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.This phenomenon also occurs along the Delaware side of the Delaware Bay.  Here are some pictures of the birds flying and feeding along the shoreline on Reed's  Beach.  The third picture below shows the horseshoe crabs behind the birds that are feasting on their eggs.

Another visit to LBI - Barnegat Lighthouse Park & Jetty

Would I go back to Long Beach Island and bird again this year? The answer was yes. The forecast for today was for mid 60's with winds only 8-10 MPH. Another birder in a FB group I'm in showed pictures of 5 Piping Plovers she saw on the beach at Barnegat Light the previous Saturday. Awesome! I have been to the Meadows and the beaches in South Cape May where Piping Plovers have also been seen this year but I hadn't had any luck spotting any though did see some American Oystercatchers. Last summer I was lucky enough to see a group of 3 Piping Plovers but to see a larger number of them even from a distance would be so cool. I also have wanted to bird at Holgate which is the opposite end of LBI and it closes to birders on April 1st. First stop was Barnegat Jetty where the Harlequin Ducks were roosting in the sun though it was only early AM. I walked out about 3/4 way just before the algae started to get bad. I didn't want a repeat of the fall I'd had there in early Feb. As I walked along the jetty I saw Ruddy Turnstones roosting, Purple Sandpipers foraging, Common Loons (going into breeding plummage)swimming and diving in the inlet, Long-tailed Ducks, American Oystercatchers flying in tandem and courting.

After walking the jetty out I went down to the beach area but no Piping Plovers just the American Oystercatchers that had been flying earlier. When I arrived back up by the lighthouse the White Pine trees had some birds that caught my eyes - Some Golden-crowned Kinglets and Pine Warblers, some house finches and White-throated sparrows on the ground.

Barnegat Lighthouse Jetty

I have been wanting to get to Barnegat Light to walk along the jetty again this winter. The Harlequin Ducks are always so beautiful. Maybe I will find some Snow Buntings (NOT)! There are always Common and Red-throated Loons, Brant, Purple Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones and a variety of other birds. I did get good looks at a new life bird, an Ipswich Sparrow!

Drake Harlequin Duck caught a crab.

close up Drake Harlequin Duck

Ruddy Turnstone (below)

Ipswich Sparrow which is subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow.(below)

The only bad part of the day was a fall out on the jetty fairly close to the end. Fortunately, while I did substain some bruising and difficulty with twisting of my leg but I didn't break anything. That brings up the question, Will I ever walk out the jetty so close to the and again where the boulders are covered with the algae? Not sure but probably not especially after reading the account of Howard Eskin falling between the boulders on the jetty.